This week, members of the State Board of Education (SBOE) gathered in Austin to hold a series of meetings over Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, which ATPE’s lobbyists have been attending. View the full SBOE agenda and additional information about this week’s meetings here.

To kick things off, the board on Wednesday discussed the Texas Resource Review (TRR) process, formerly known as the Instructional Materials Quality Evaluation (IMQE). Acting as a rubric for instructional materials for English Language Arts and Reading (ELAR) in grades 3-8, the TRR will serve as a type of “consumer reports” resources for school districts and educators looking for quality instructional materials. Read a full recap of Wednesday’s board meeting in this blog post from ATPE Lobbyist Mark Wiggins.

Other topics of discussion during this week’s meetings of the board and its committees include a new procedure for nominating members to the School Land Board (SLB), the ed prep assessment pilot known as “EdTPA,” and the Generation 25 charter application that would establish charters with new operators as opposed to letting existing charter holders expand their operations. ATPE’s Wiggins has more on the discussion of these items in this blog post from Thursday.

The board will wrap up its September meetings today. The full board’s agenda for today includes hearing from Commissioner of Education Mike Morath. Read more about his remarks at today’s SBOE meeting, which covered accountability and new reading academy requirements, in this Teach the Vote blog post from ATPE Lobbyist Andrea Chevalier.

The board also took time today to recognize outgoing chair Donna Bahorich for her leadership with an honorary resolution. This will be the last meeting over which Bahorich will preside, pending the governor’s naming of a new chair for the SBOE.

Related: Commissioner Mike Morath also visited the ATPE Board of Directors meeting in Pflugerville on Sept. 7, 2019. The commissioner updated the board on accountability ratings, discussed the issue of merit pay, and more.

This year’s legislative session saw a slew of bills relating to assessments, from their administration and content to their duration and much more. For an in-depth look at which laws from the 86th session will affect things like end-of-course exams, individual graduation committees (IGCs), and the length of standardized state assessments, check out this week’s blog post by ATPE Lobbyist Andrea Chevalier. On Monday, we’ll have a another new post for our ongoing “New School Year, New Laws” weekly series here on Teach the Vote. You can also learn more about many new laws affecting educators in this comprehensive digital guide compiled by ATPE’s legal staff.

The latest iteration of “HB 3 in 30,” the Texas Education Agency’s weekly video series that breaks down the signature education bill of the 86th session, focuses on reading practices. Click here to watch the most recent video and access all the prior videos in the HB 3 in 30 series.

It was announced this week that Harrison Keller will become the new Commissioner of Higher Education, following the recent retirement of Commissioner Raymund Peredes. The announcement came Wednesday after a unanimous vote by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB). Keller, who assumes the post on Oct. 1, has worked for the University of Texas and was a longtime education policy adviser to a former Texas Speaker of the House, Rep. Tom Craddick (R-Midland).

ELECTION UPDATE: Yet another big retirement announcement came today with Sen. José Rodriguez (D-El Paso) announcing that he will not seek re-election. An attorney, Sen. Rodriguez has described himself as the first member of his family to attend college. He was first elected to the Senate District 29 seat in 2010 and has also chaired the Senate Democratic Caucus.

Early voting for the upcoming November election begins on Oct. 21, just five weeks from now. For more information about what’s going to be on the ballot, check out our previous Teach the Vote blog posts on proposed constitutional amendments and some special elections that will be taking place on the same day. You can also use the resources provided by the Texas Educators Vote coalition to help ensure you are ready to vote. The deadline to register to vote for the November 5 election is Oct. 7, 2019.

Texas Commissioner of Education Mike Morath updated the State Board of Education (SBOE) today, June 12, 2019, on recent bills passed by the 86th Texas Legislature affecting public education. His remarks included comments on the major school finance and reform bill, House Bill (HB) 3.

Commissioner Morath began with a review of HB 3906, which makes several changes to how state assessments are delivered. Intended do reduce test anxiety, the bill bthis blog post from the ATPE lobby team.

Under HB 3, TEA is required to enter into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with a public institution to study the STAAR and ensure that the assessment meets certain criteria: It is to be written at the appropriate reading level; should only include content aligned with the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) for that grade level or earlier grades; and should only include passages written at or below the reading level of the grade level for the assessment. This report is due to the legislature by December 1, 2019.

Commissioner Mike Morath addressing SBOE members on June 12, 2019.

The commissioner provided the board with a high-level review of the main components of HB 3, which the agency estimates will provide an average increase of $635 per student in average daily attendance (ADA). You can read the full analysis of HB 3 by ATPE’s lobbyists here.

Aside from new legislation, Commissioner Morath indicated that the agency has found the financial resources to follow through with the SBOE’s request to create a charter school transparency website, which will provide easy access to more information on charter schools. A beta version of the website will be available by spring 2020. This segued into a discussion on TEA’s process of reviewing applications for new charters, and the commissioner walked the board through the five applications he has recommended for approval, which were announced late last week. SBOE member Ruben Cortez (D-Brownsville) pointed out the short notice and requested that the agency provide its charter recommendations further ahead of time.

SBOE member Barbara Cargill (R-The Woodlands) asked the commissioner to review the incentive pay program created under HB 3. Morath noted that local school districts will be able to develop programs based upon the current T-TESS evaluation system, with Texas Tech University tasked with reviewing districts’ programs for quality control. The commissioner added that while “master” teacher designations were envisioned as roughly the top five percent of teachers based on performance, the bill requires that the system enable all teachers to be mathematically able to qualify for the designation. Commissioner Morath pointed out that HB 3 requires that 90 percent of a district’s incentive pay funding must be used to increase the salary of teachers working on the campus at which the incentive pay program is in place, though not necessarily each teacher. With that in mind, Morath suggested that districts could “craftily invest in a teacher group.”

After the commissioner spoke, TEA’s governmental relations team updated the board on how the SBOE’s legislative recommendations fared during the 2019 legislative session. Hunter Thompson walked members through changes the legislature made to governance of the Permanent School Fund (PSF), which the board oversees, as well as incentives to hire and retain teachers, which Thompson suggested were included in the provisions of HB 3. Thompson also credited HB 3 with accomplishing a number of objectives laid out in the board’s Long-Range Plan (LRP) for Public Education. SBOE chair Donna Bahorich (R-Houston) and member Keven Ellis (R-Lufkin) suggested in the future that the board may consider drafting legislative recommendations earlier in order to spend more time educating legislators about those issues in the run-up to a legislative session.

The Senate Education Committee met Thursday, May 16, to hold what is expected to be its last meeting to consider new legislation. The committee will continue to hold formal meetings as necessary for the sole purpose of voting out bills that have already been heard. Members heard testimony on the following bills:

HB 961, which would require that school districts and charters that employ a school nurse place the nurse on the concussion oversight team upon the nurse’s request. Nurses on these teams must then take a concussions training course every two years to be on the team.

HB 2778, which would update the local bracket to a joint election agreement in Rep. Tracy King’s (D-Batesville) district regarding election expenses.

HB 2818, which would remove the requirement that an online dropout recovery program establish satisfactory requirements for monthly progress. The bill states that online dropout recovery programs are not subject to minutes of instructions and calculations of average daily attendance (ADA) and would create new requirements for how ADA will be calculated.

HB 3012, which would require that school districts provide students an alternative means of instruction for the classes the student misses while in in-school suspension (ISS) or out-of-school suspension (OSS). The bill states that at least one option should not require the use of the internet. The committee substitute for this bill reduces this requirement to apply only to core courses.

HB 3650, which would require the district and institution of higher education to consider the use of free or low-cost open educational resources in courses offered under an agreement to provide a dual credit program to high school students.

HB 496, which would require school districts and charters to develop and implement a bleeding control kit program. The version passed by the House incorporates changes ATPE recommended to strengthen educators’ immunity from liability.

HB 663, which would require the State Board of Education (SBOE) to review and revise the Texas essential knowledge and skills (TEKS) for the foundation curriculum.

HB 769, which would require a school board to receive approval from the commissioner for any severance payment to a superintendent who has been terminated based on malfeasance. The committee substitute for the bill clarifies the definition of malfeasance and removes retroactive reporting.

HB 974, which would change the cycle of the safety and security audit to two years from three and require districts to check the ID of a person who is coming to the school for a non-public event. Current law leaves checking IDs for non-public events up to districts.

HB 1388, which adds indicators of post-secondary readiness to the accountability system. In the student achievement domain, for high school campuses and districts with high school campuses, the bill provides for a measure of students (rather than a percentage of students) who successfully complete an SBOE-approved practicum or internship and students who successfully complete a coherent CTE sequence. ATPE supports this bill.

HB 1906, which would allow a parent of a student with severe cognitive disabilities to request that the child be exempted from required assessments. This bill was amended on the House floor to add a section on evaluating specialized support campuses. For a campus in which at least 90 percent of students receive special education services, the bill would require the commissioner, in consultation with administrators, teachers, parents, and guardians, by rule to establish accountability guidelines for a specialized support campus in developing an alternative accountability program.

HB 2184, which would create collaborative policies for improving a student’s transition from an alternative education setting back to the regular classroom. A committee substitute for the bill clarifies that teachers who implement the transition plan are included on the planning committee. ATPE supports this bill.

HB 2511, which would require campus improvement plans to include goals and methods for bullying prevention and dropout deterrence, including providing teacher continuing education and materials or training for parents. ATPE supports this bill.

HB 3435, which would establish March 1 as Texas Girls in STEM Day.

HB 3511, which would create a commission on the Texas workforce of the future. The commission would be established to engage business, state agencies, and local workforce system partners in the efforts of state and local authorities to build the state’s workforce talent pipeline, which includes providing data regarding college and career readiness, workforce credentials, and degree programs. The commission would be required to make recommendations to the legislature, including statutory changes, in order to improve alignment between workforce stakeholders and public schools and higher education, expanding the adult high school and industry certification charter school program, and encourage long-term collaboration between public education, higher education, and industry.

HB 3630, which would prohibit a teacher from using “aversive techniques” on a student with a disability receiving special education services.

HB 3884, which would transfer duties relating to providing bacterial meningitis information from TEA to the Department of State Health Services. The bill repeals a section of law referring to TEA’s duty to consult with the Texas Department of Health in prescribing the content of information given to students and to establish an advisory committee.

HB 4258, which would transfer bond approval for charter schools to the attorney general and requires approval if the guidelines are met.

HB 4388, which would require SBOE and the School Land Board (SLB) to share investment information with each other and require SLB to contribute to a newly-created liquid permanent school fund (PSF) account over which the SBOE would have control.

The Senate Education Committee also adopted a committee substitute for HB 3906 today that included the language from the Senate’s version of HB 3 that deals with the STAAR test. This includes provisions that would consolidate reading and writing exams in grades four and eight, cap multiple choice questions, and allow the STAAR to be split over multiple days, among others. Chairman Larry Taylor (R-Friendswood) explained that this language would be coming out of HB 3, which is currently in a conference committee to work out differences between the House and Senate versions, in order to address the topic in a separate, standalone bill like HB 3906.

The committee also voted to advance the following bills to the full Senate:

HB 496, which was heard earlier in the day. Sens. Paul Bettencourt (R-Houston) and Bob Hall (R-Edgewood) voted against the bill.

HB 548, which would require that districts and charters report through the public education information management system (PEIMS) various truancy information, including students subject to compulsory attendance requirements, children who fail to enroll or fail to attend without an excuse for 10 or more days within a six-month period, etc.

HB 680, which would require the Texas Education Agency (TEA) to coordinate with the Texas Workforce Commissioner (TWC) on efforts to improve pre-K quality, and assign a PEIMS number to track children under age six enrolled in the commission’s child care program. The bill would allow local workforce development boards to contract with area child care providers to provide subsidized child care services. Sens. Bettencourt, Hall, and Bryan Hughes (R-Mineola) voted against the bill.

HB 769, which was heard earlier in the day.

HB 961, which was heard earlier in the day.

HB 1051, which would continue the Excel Goodwill Charter. ATPE supports this bill.

HB 1131, which would create the “Texas Public Finance Authority” to act as a paying agent under current law for the guarantee and payment of bonds. School districts would also be able to borrow money from the new authority. Sens. Bettencourt, Hall, and Angela Paxton (R-McKinney) voted against the bill. Sen. Royce West (D-Dallas) registered as present, not voting.

HB 2184, which was heard earlier in the day.

HB 2210, which states that students who receive residential services in a state hospital will not be considered in the accountability rating of the district or campus that the hospital is located in if their parent does not reside in the district. ATPE supports this bill.

HB 2778, which was heard earlier in the day.

HB 3012, which was heard earlier in the day.

HB 3435, which was heard earlier in the day.

HB 3511, which was heard earlier in the day. Sen. Hall voted against the bill. Sens. Bettencourt and Hughes registered as present, not voting.

HB 3630, which was heard earlier in the day.

HB 3650, which was heard earlier in the day.

HB 3884, which was heard earlier in the day.

HB 4205, which would allow repurposed campuses to be operated in partnership with certain nonprofits that have a successful record of operating a campus or charter. This bill was amended on the House floor to include ACE campus turnaround language. ATPE opposes this bill because it would create a statewide campus turnaround plan that includes elements that could tie a teacher’s evaluation to student test scores.

HB 4258, which was heard earlier in the day. Sen. West registered as present, not voting.

HB 4310, which would require districts to allow teachers sufficient time to teach a given curriculum and states that districts may not penalize a teacher for failing to follow the scope and sequence timeline if the teacher determines that the students need more learning time.

HB 4388, which was heard earlier in the day.

HB 663, which was heard earlier in the day.

HB 3906, which was heard earlier in the day.

HB 974, which was heard earlier in the day.

HB 4342, which would change the composition of the board of directors of the Texas School Safety Center to include a professional architect and three rather than two members of the public.

HB 76, which would allow parents the option of participating in an echocardiogram (ECG) or electrocardiogram (EKG) screening program for any student participating in a University Interscholastic League (UIL) activity that currently requires a physical examination. School districts would be required to provide information about the availability of the tests and would able to partner with a nonprofit to provide the service or could pay for the service themselves. Sens. Bettencourt, Donna Campbell (R-New Braunfels), Pat Fallon (R-Prosper), and Hall voted against the bill.

The House Committee on Public Education met Thursday morning at the Texas Capitol to discuss interim charges related to testing and special education. The interim charges are assigned by Speaker Joe Straus (R-San Antonio) and are generally composed of a detailed list of topics for each standing committee to research and discuss before the next legislative session. The following charges were on Thursday’s agenda:

Examine research-based options for evaluating student achievement beyond standardized test scores, including adaptive and portfolio assessments. Examine the scope of the current Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS)in grades with the state assessment, including the format, assessment calendar, and the limits of instructional days, if any. Determine if it is appropriate to limit TEKS to readiness standards that can be taught in less than the school year. Review current Student Success Initiative testing and make recommendations on its continuation or repeal. Review the ability of the state to waive standardized testing for students with significant cognitive disabilities.

Examine programs in public schools that have proven results meeting the needs of and improving student achievement for students with disabilities, with an emphasis on programs specializing in autism, dysgraphia, and dyslexia. Recommend ways to support and scale innovative programs for these students, including providing supplemental services, or incentivizing public-private partnerships or inter district and charter school collaborations. Monitor the implementation and funding for the pilot programs authorized in H.B. 21 (85R) and review the Texas Education Agency’s compliance with S.B. 160 (85R), which prohibits special education student caps.

Members of the committee raised questions about the writing test, in particular with regard to grading methods. Morath indicated that a writing program created as a result of legislation by state Rep. Gary VanDeaver (R-New Boston) has yielded useful information, and noted that additional appropriation to continue the program would be a positive step.

Rep. VanDeaver asked Morath how much money could be saved by eliminating standardized tests that are required by the state, but not by federal law. House Bill (HB) 515 filed by VanDeaver during the 2017 legislative session would have eliminated tests not mandated under the federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), and was estimated to result in a savings of $7 million. The bill was ultimately unsuccessful.

Other invited testimony included a panel of superintendents who testified to the overreliance on standardized tests for everything from student advancement to school accountability. Granger ISD Superintendent Randy Willis asked the committee to consider eliminating a single summative assessment at the end of the year in favor of multiple formative assessments and reducing the number of assessed standards. Doug Williams, Superintendent of Sunnyvale ISD, voiced support for dividing the STAAR into sections, ongoing diagnostic assessments, and making substantial changes to the writing portion of the exam. Part of the panel discussion touched on allowing teachers to directly grade writing exams, in other to provide better feedback and analysis.

ATPE Lobbyist Monty Exter testified before the committee on the specificity of the TEKS, teaching versus testing, and corollary applications to the teacher pipeline. Other public testimony focused on portfolio assessments, such as rubrics developed by the New York Performance Standards Consortium.

ATPE Lobbyist Monty Exter testifying before House Public Education Committee May 24, 2018.

After a brief break, the committee turned its focus to special education. TEA Deputy Commissioner Penny Schwinn walked members through the corrective action plan prepared by the agency to address the de facto cap on special education enrollment that resulted in a federal rebuke. Schwinn emphasized that current and future guidance indicates students with dyslexia should not be arbitrarily confined to Section 504 programs, but may qualify for special education services depending on the individual.

A number of advocacy organizations were invited to testify regarding the agency’s actions. Among the concerns raised by special education advocates was the timeline for implementation. Chris Masey with the Coalition of Texans with Disabilities presented the dichotomy between progress at the policy level and frustration felt by parents looking for meaningful results. Masey also noted there hasn’t exactly been a surge in special education enrollment after the cap was lifted. Heather Sheffield with Decoding Dyslexia suggested policymakers explore a way to enforce the Dyslexia Handbook developed by TEA.

Additionally, advocates asked for per-pupil funding for dyslexia, as well as having adequate instructional time and funding for both training and staffing. One advocate testified that training alone for a special education teacher can top $5,000. ATPE Lobbyist Monty Exter thanked the committee for the work done last session to address the cap, as well as funding weights for special education. Exter drew the committee’s attention to districts’ ability to provide external services already. While therapeutic and educational services are both available, the primary focus of special education should be on educational services, and any therapeutic services covered by district or state funds should be in furtherance of the educational objectives.

This week the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) held the third of its six expected hearings aimed at monitoring implementation of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). The hearing was focused on gathering input from stakeholders on the U.S. Department of Education’s (ED) handling of implementation of the new law.

The invited panel of testifiers represented teachers, state and local education agencies, the civil rights community, academia, and parents and other advocates. The vast majority of the hearing was focused on ED’s proposed “supplement not supplant” rule, which is based on language in law that says states cannot use federal money to replace money that would otherwise be spent by the state. (As a reminder, ED turned to a process known as negotiated rulemaking to write rules for the “supplement not supplant” and assessment language in ESSA. The committee assembled for this process was only able to agree on the assessment piece, leaving “supplement not supplant” rule language in the hands of ED. Catch up here.) While the language seeks to provide equity among Title 1 and non-Title 1 schools through a dollar-to-dollar comparison, the panelists cited numerous unintended consequences that could be caused by the proposal as written, such as altering teacher hiring practices and placing burdensome requirements on schools and districts.

The issue of “supplement not supplant” is an ongoing issue that is sure to remain a hot topic in Washington, D.C.. Last week, the Congressional Research Service (CRS), the nonpartisan research and analysis arm of the U.S. Congress, released a report that concluded the language initially proposed by ED could set up a legal challenge based on limited statutory authority. Republican education leaders in Congress were quick to praise the report while ED defended its rule saying it had an obligation to provide clarity where the law is silent. There is agreement from some stakeholders that clarity is needed. A group of over 600 educators teaching in Title 1 schools sent a letter to ED last week that expressed the need for strong and fair regulations on the issue. That letter follows two other recent support letters sent to the department from a group of nine Democratic senators and a host of civil rights groups.

ED also announced yesterday that rule proposals pertaining to the innovative assessments pilot and accountability portions of the new ESSA law would be released in July and June, respectively.

In the other chamber of Congress, the House Committee on Education and the Workforce was focused this week on a bill to reauthorize the national school lunch program. The committee held a mark up Wednesday on H.R. 5003, the Improving Child Nutrition and Education Act of 2016. The bill was ultimately voted out of committee by a vote of 20-14, but not without debate in and outside of the Capitol. On Tuesday, the day prior to the hearing, a substitute bill was unveiled that included a block grant pilot program for three states. The addition, which was pushed by conservative lawmakers and advocates, has critics concerned it’s a first step in cutting federal funding and participation in school nutrition programs.

While the program does include some positive aspects, such as more money for school breakfasts, it also limits a program that allows some schools to provide universal free meals to students. The Senate Agriculture Committee has already passed its version of the reauthorization bill; the Senate version represents a compromise between advocates, lawmakers, and the administration.

More will unfold on both issues. Stay tuned to Teach the Vote for updates on these federal topics and more.